United Nations
October 14, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
I don’t think we have commented on President Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in protest of that outfit’s anti-Israel bias. My comment is: Great call. President Trump is following in the footsteps of President Reagan. He took the U.S. out of UNESCO in 1984 because it was too susceptible to Soviet influence and overly critical of Israel. There
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October 10, 2017 — Scott Johnson
Melanie Phillips recently drew attention to the September 25 appearance of a former prince of Hamas with a surprising message at the 36th Regular Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council. The sole purpose of this worse than worthless organization seems to be the disparagement of Israel. Melanie posted the video along with an introduction. Here is the video. Up for discussion was the evergreen subject of human rights
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September 20, 2017 — Steven Hayward
I’ll probably never be able to make up my mind fully about President Trump, and I am sure a number of our commenters will pounce on this opening. But just about every time I think he’s blundered or shown himself not up to the job, something changes my mind as the dust settles. First, as Scott and Paul noted, his speech to the UN this week was terrific. Geez—you’d think
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September 19, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said of President Trump’s speech at the U.N today, “In over 30 years in my experience with the UN, I never heard a bolder or more courageous speech.” Netanyahu’s speech to the U.N. wasn’t bad either. You can read it here. Netanyahu began by celebrating Israel’s vastly improved standing in the world: We’re in the midst of a great revolution, a revolution in Israel’s standing among
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September 19, 2017 — Scott Johnson
President Trump’s speech at the United Nations General Assembly this morning was an eloquent piece of work. It warrants review in its entirety. The White House has posted the full text here. Video is embedded below (about 42 minutes). It was in many respects a speech that returned to the traditional themes of American foreign policy running back to the Truman administration, the Marshall Plan and the founding of the
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September 19, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
President Trump addressed the United Nations today. You can read his speech here. I think it’s an excellent address. I agree with Rick Manning that “Trump has provided a cogent and inspiring defense of America and the American constitutional system of governance to the world, not as imposition but an example to be followed, while at the same time respecting the sovereignty of other nations.” While making clear that the
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June 8, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
President Trump has made some outstanding appointments (although one of the best, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, recently offered to resign in the face of criticism from the president). Right now, my favorite Trump appointee is U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley. In the tradition of our best U.N. ambassadors — Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Jeane Kirkpatrick — Haley has been a powerful voice against U.N. hypocrisy. Most notably, she has denounced U.N.
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June 1, 2017 — Steven Hayward
Word is that President Trump will announce his decision on whether the U.S. will remain in the Paris Climate Accord at 3 pm eastern time today. It is rumored that he will withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Accord, probably by invoking its own clause allowing for withdrawal on a four-year timeline, but that the U.S. will remain a full participant in the UN’s Framework Convention on Climate Change, which
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April 26, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
Dana Milbank reports, with glee, that the United Nations “has contacted the Trump administration as part of an investigation into whether repealing [Obamacare] without an adequate substitute for the millions who would lose health coverage would be a violation of several international conventions that bind the United States.” The warning comes from the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner on Human Rights in Geneva. The U.N. Human Rights Commission (now
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March 28, 2017 — Scott Johnson
AIPAC’s annual Policy Conference opened Sunday in Washington, D.C. and concludes today. The conference home page is here. AIPAC has posted videos here. The posted videos include speeches by Prime Minister Netanyahu, Vice President Pence, former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Senate Majority Leader McConnell, House Speaker Ryan and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy as well as leading Democrats. AIPAC promotes American support of Israel on a bipartisan basis. Yesterday
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March 25, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
The news obviously wasn’t good for conservatives this week on the Obamacare front. On the spy vs. spy front, the news was mixed and confusing. However, there was plenty for conservatives to be happy about. First and foremost, Neil Gorsuch was terrific at his Senate hearing, and the Democrats seem determined to maximize the damage his confirmation will inflict on them. In addition, President Trump’s approval of construction of the
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February 21, 2017 — John Hinderaker
President Trump has made so many excellent appointments that it is hard to keep up with them all. But surely one of the best is his appointment of Nikki Haley, former Governor of South Carolina, as UN Ambassador. The video below dates from last Thursday, when Haley addressed the press after attending her first Security Council meeting on the Middle East. It is only about four minutes long, so rather
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January 3, 2017 — Scott Johnson
Ilan Ben Zion reports at the Times of Israel: Islamic authorities managing the Temple Mount attempted to have a veteran Israeli archaeologist ejected from the Jerusalem flashpoint holy site on Sunday for using the term “Temple Mount” in a lecture to American students. Waqf guards brought him to Israeli police at the site to complain, and the police, while saying there were no legal grounds to eject him, advised him
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January 2, 2017 — Scott Johnson
The Obama administration denied that it coordinated the introduction and passage of the infamous United Nations Security Council resolution that allocated to the Palestinian Arabs all the land taken by Israel in its defense in 1967, including the Jewish quarter of Jerusalem. The Obama administration goes so far as to concede that it its abstention allowed the passage of the resolution. It hasn’t explained why it abstained rather than voted
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January 1, 2017 — John Hinderaker
The Associated Press reports on incoming U.N. head Antonio Guterres, and takes the opportunity to editorialize on Donald Trump. As is so often true these days, some of what the AP reports as fact is flat-out wrong: Antonio Guterres takes the reins of the United Nations on New Year’s Day, promising to be a “bridge-builder” but facing an antagonistic incoming U.S. administration led by Donald Trump who thinks the world
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December 30, 2016 — Paul Mirengoff
British Prime Minister Theresa May has criticized John Kerry’s oration on the state of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Kerry called Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition “the most right-wing in Israeli history, with an agenda driven by its most extreme elements.” And, of course, he condemned Israeli settlement building as a threat to the “two-state solution.” May responded that her government “[does] not believe that it is appropriate to attack the composition of the
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December 29, 2016 — Scott Johnson
Michael Ramirez (@Ramireztoons) carefully observed John Kerry’s rant against our friend and ally Israel at the State Department yesterday. President Obama’s public relations minions are on their prevarication tour to defend the betrayal of Israel by the United States in the United Nations. Kerry’s rant at State was a key stop on the tour. In his cartoon on Kerry’s rant Ramirez homes in on the Obama doctrine as applied in
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